Clean up of Oil Spill in Mediterranean Sea Begins

A month ago, 10,000-15,000 tonnes of oil spilled into the Mediterranean Sea and Lebanon has now begun to clean the mess up.

"We are starting the clean-up operations as soon as tomorrow but the ceasefire has nothing to do with it ... The blockade is still on so we cannot go into the sea yet. " Environment Minister Yacoub Sarraf told Reuters. “We are working in parallel with Cyprus and UNEP to try to define it," he said. "We are meeting in Athens on Thursday to try to ... get an OK to go in the sea and survey it physically."

Clean up of the spill that was caused by the Iraqi bombing of a power plant has been delayed due to fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas that was heavily covered in the News the past few weeks.

"This oil slick definitely poses a threat to biodiversity," said Ezio Amato, a biology expert at Italy's ICRAM marine research institute which works with UNEP. "Because tuna eggs ... float on the water surface, they can be directly affected by this oil slick with potential serious consequences for the tuna population in the Mediterranean."

The clean up starts just after a tanker spilled over 500,000 gallons of oil of the coast of the Philippines.